A wet and muddy burglar who sneaked into a Southeast Portland home and stole an Oregon Ducks football jersey told a prosecutor this week that he threw the jersey away.

Radai Artega-Vazquez told the prosecutor he wasn't a University of Oregon sports fan -- and for that matter, he didn't care about football at all -- moments before a judge ordered Artega-Vazquez to pay $50 so the jersey's owner can buy a new one.

On the evening of Sept. 18, Artega-Vazquez had been with his brother and his brother's girlfriend when they started fighting. Neighbors called police, and Artega-Vazquez split. Because he's a Mexican-born immigrant apparently in this country illegally, Artega-Vazquez told authorities he was desperately trying to hide because he feared he would be deported.

He found refuge in the bathtub of a home in the 8100 block of Southeast Woodstock Boulevard sometime after 10 that rainy night. That's when the man who lived there, 24-year-old Dustin Haas, discovered Artega-Vazquez covered in mud and sweat, lying in the bathtub, wearing Haas' Ducks jersey. He found it in a pile of laundry on Haas' washing machine as he slipped into the house.

Artega-Vazquez pulled out a $100 bill, and begged Haas not to call police.

"It scared the crap out of me," Haas later recounted, noting his two daughters, ages 3 and 5, were asleep on the couch. "...I'm screaming bloody murder. 'Who are you? Get your hands up! How'd you get my shirt on?"

Wielding a baseball bat, Haas chased Artega-Vazquez out of his house. Haas called police, who found Artega-Vazquez hiding in a crawl space the next morning in the detached garage of a home 2 1/2 miles away.

Haas' jersey was no where to be found, to his great disappointment.

The incident has put Artega-Vazquez on the fast-track out of this country. With time off for good behavior and credit for time he's already served in jail, he could be deported in a few weeks. That's because Oregon allows some non-violent prison inmates who agree not to fight deportation an additional six months off their sentences.